Friday, October 25th at 7PM
GANJA & HESS
Bill Gunn, 1973, 113 min.
Something special is coming to Maysles Documentary Center this October! In partnership with Kino Film Collection, we’ll be screening Bill Gunn’s groundbreaking film Ganja & Hess (1973), which has been hailed as “a vampire movie masterpiece” and “one of the most profound, surreal, and horrifying love stories ever made.” The screening will also include a special recorded intro by Maya S. Cade, creator and curator of Black Film Archive and scholar-in-residence at the Library of Congress.
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REVIEWS:
"An underground classic...the most complicated, intriguing, subtle, sophisticated and passionate Black film of the '70s." - James Monaco, American Film Now
"A vampire movie masterpiece...The film defies easy classification with its hallucinatory visuals, rich metaphors for addiction, raw sexuality and lyrical dialogue that offers a wholly unique treatise on African-American identity." - Leila Latif, BBC
"The most important Black-produced film since Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song." - The Amsterdam News
"A sensual, scholarly, magic-realist exploration of Black history and Black desire." - The New York Times
"A blood-soaked masterpiece. One of the most profound, surreal and horrifying love stories ever made." - Complex
Maya S. Cade is the creator and curator of Black Film Archive and a scholar-in-residence at the Library of Congress. She has been awarded special distinctions by the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics for the Archive. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, NPR, The Paris Review, Vulture, among other publications. She is the fall 2022 programmer in residence at Indiana University’s Cinema and was the fall 2021 research fellow at Indiana University's Black Film Center & Archive. Originally hailing from New Orleans, Maya is based in Los Angeles.
"A seminal take on Blaxploitation and horror." - The Chicago Reader
"An underground classic...the most complicated, intriguing, subtle, sophisticated and passionate Black film of the '70s." - James Monaco, American Film Now
"A vampire movie masterpiece...The film defies easy classification with its hallucinatory visuals, rich metaphors for addiction, raw sexuality and lyrical dialogue that offers a wholly unique treatise on African-American identity." - Leila Latif, BBC
"The most important Black-produced film since Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song." - The Amsterdam News
"A sensual, scholarly, magic-realist exploration of Black history and Black desire." - The New York Times
"A blood-soaked masterpiece. One of the most profound, surreal and horrifying love stories ever made." - Complex
